[pct-l] Headlamps

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Sasha,



Most of the time I carry one or two *Photon Freedom* LED pinch-lights at
0.26 oz. each.
http://www.photonlight.com/Photon-Freedom-Micro-Keychain-LED-Flashlights-p/fm-led-keychain-flashlight.htm



Some of them come with a little clip to attach the light to a hat, but I
don’t use it.  If I want the light on my head I just put the neck-string
around my head and move the little string slide to tighten it in place.



For walking at night I don’t prefer to have that light – or any other light
-- on my head.  I carry the light in my hand when I grip the trekking pole.
The light held low does a much better job of revealing the texture and
relief of the trail surface than does a light nearly at eye level.



The little *Freedom* has another feature I like:  The power switch provides
electronically-controlled, continuously-variable light intensity from very
low to maximum.  I don’t use a light very much, but one task is to
illuminate my paper while I write my trail journal notes before I sleep.  The
full-on power is too much for close work so I turn the illumination down to
a low setting.



I have two versions of the *Freedom:*  The standard version has the LED
extending out past the housing a bit to provide broad illumination, while
the “covert” version – which I somewhat prefer -- has a small sleeve around
the LED to shield side-light and direct the light more directly forward.


I use the white light version.  Red would be OK if there were instances
where I needed to maintain my “night vision” while using the light, but the
red light also makes my TOPO maps look a bit strange and more difficult to
read.

Steel-Eye
Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT -- 1965
http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09



On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 6:13 AM, Steve McAllister
<brooklynkayak at gmail.com>wrote:

> A single AA battery headlamp like the Zebralite is light and using a
> single AA battery is more cost effective in the long run.
> You can also get AA batteries almost anywhere.
>
> I never could understand why so many headlamps use 3 AAA batteries
> when one AA has about the same amount of juice. Also AAA batteries
> come in 4 packs not 3?
>
> Use lithium batteries and you will get a lot more miles on a single
> battery and they aren't as affect by the cold as other batteries.
>
> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:28 PM, Sasha Leidman <sleidman at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was thinking about buying a headlamp for backpacking and around the
> > neigborhood, which brand/model would you guys suggest. Thanks
> >
> > --
> > Sasha Leidman
> > sleidman at gmail.com
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